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Howard Banner




Dear Neighbors,

We are entering the homestretch of the legislative session where the balance of our work is focused on passing a state budget.

My priority is to pass a state budget that is responsive to what Minnesotans are telling us – that costs are too high for things like housing, child care, and health care. They want action that puts more power in the hands of Minnesotans, not the wealthy special interests that too often rig the system against them. The chaos that the Trump Administration is unleashing at the federal level underscores how vital it is that we pass a state budget that puts working families first.

In several budget areas, we have been able to move these kinds of priorities forward. In others, House Republicans have blocked our progress and even sought to rollback hard-fought victories for Minnesota workers. If we are able to focus on the future, instead of relitigating the past, I am confident we can balance our state budget in a way that improves the lives of Minnesotans. 

 

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*Our Housing Bills*

This week, we passed our Housing Budget and Policy bills in the House, both with broad support.

Too many Minnesota families are being priced out of the American Dream by a housing shortage that is worsening by the day. Our budget takes necessary strides to prevent homelessness, build more homes, and continue to press toward a vision of Minnesota where everyone can find a safe and affordable home in a community where they want to live.






Housing Budget





The bill also incentivizes cities to adopt pro-housing supply zoning policies to spark production of more homes, such as legalizing more townhomes, duplexes, and multi-family housing. In addition, our policy bill streamlines the delivery of funding and helps prevent wage theft for the Minnesotans building the homes we need.

These are solid bills, and I look forward to working with the Senate to ensure our final Housing bills are the best they can possibly be.

 

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*What’s Next?*

We still have significant budget areas left to debate in the House next week, including K-12 Education, Human Services, Health, and others.

These are some of our largest budgets, so it makes sense that they would be some of our last to be put together. We’ve run into some sticking points in them as well. In our K-12 budget, for example, Republicans want to cut Unemployment Insurance benefits for the workers that help our schools and students thrive. Cutting that is a non-starter for me and my DFL colleagues, and I said as much in our Rules Committee hearing this week:






Rules Committee [ [link removed] ]





I’ll be sure to keep you posted as we cover these budget areas next week. 

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*
Stay Connected*

We’ve only got a few weeks left of this year’s legislative session, and things are moving fast. If you have any questions about the bills we’re passing - or what isn’t getting passed - please feel free to reach out.

You can reach me at [email protected] or 651-296-7158. You can also follow along on my Facebook page [ [link removed] ]. 

In partnership, 

 

Michael Howard








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